October- peeing on the porch

 These two boys are getting to be pretty good buddies.  Sometimes Tyler's not always too excited to have a tag-along, so it was really nice when I came upon this one morning.

 

 

Tyler is really good at reading and it constantly amazes me.  He's progressed a lot faster than my other kids have.  I don't know if it's because he's been read to almost every night since he was a newborn as we read to the other kids, or if he's just naturally quick to pick it up.  Either way, it's nice that it comes so easily to him.  Reading with three kids for 20 minutes at night takes up a lot of time!

 

 

Tyler and Brady did flag football this year.  I don't have any pictures of Brady from my camera.  Once again those pictures are on Lance's phone.  This was Tyler's first year and he had a lot of fun.

 

He spent most of the time pulling up his pants when he was running.  He has no bum to so his pants just slide right down.  Even with the adjustable waist cinched in as far as it can go, they slide right down.  He needs some suspenders or he's destined to be a plumber.

 

 

Isaac loved going to all of the games.  He's a sports boy for sure.  He was always very distraught when he didn't get flags though.  He'd spend half of the game insisting he needed flags.  I finally put some felt onto a ribbon and added some Velcro so he could have his own set of flags.  He wears them constantly, but especially to the games.

Some time in late August I realized I might be pregnant.  I don't really ever have very severe pregnancy symptoms, so sometimes it takes a while before I clue in that I could be pregnant.  And when we're not actively trying to get pregnant, I don't keep track of cycles.  It hadn't been long since I stopped nursing and I haven't always been regular so it doesn't always click right away.  Anyway, on the first of October I went to my OB to for my 12 week checkup.  They couldn't find a heartbeat right away, but I knew this wasn't abnormal and I was happy to have an ultrasound to check on things. Everything was just fine.  It just turned out the little gummy bear was about a week behind what I'd guessed. 

 

I wasn't planning to tell anyone for as long as possible since that's the way I like to do things.  Unfortunately, things didn't go my way.  Two days later I was over at my sister-in-law's house with my three little boys when all of the sudden there was some definite bleeding.  I ran to the bathroom as nonchalantly as possible.  I stole a pad and tried to act normal since we weren't ready to leave yet.  The bleeding continued though, so I told my sister-in-law I was pregnant and all of the sudden having some problems so I needed to go.  I was trying to be as calm as possible knowing there can be bleeding for lots of different reasons, at the same time preparing myself for the possibility that this pregnancy could be ending. I came home, called my doctor who told me to come in.  I called Lance who came home immediately.  Then I had to call and tell his mom the good news/bad news.  (It was very reminiscent of when my water broke with Chloe.  We called her in the middle of the night to stay with Mia and Brady.  I was grateful to have family close enough to help, but hated seeing the fear in her eyes since I knew that's probably the same look I had.)  She came right over and we headed to the doctor. 

 

  The lady doing the ultrasound was just pointing out some cute positions the baby was in, but not saying anything about what was going on so I was pretty worried, wondering if I was losing the pregnancy or not.  It was hard to focus on cute images of a baby I may never have.  After the ultrasound, we talked to the nurse who finally told me there was a tear in my placenta which was causing the bleeding.  I can't remember how big they said it was or if they even said.  The nurse said it was fairly common and most of the time it heals on it's own.  It can cause placental abruption and preterm labor though so I was put on "pelvic rest" until I was 16 weeks.  That means no "relations", (my kids may read this some day) no exercise and no lifting anything over 5 pounds or about a gallon of milk.  That one was the kicker.  How do you take care of a one year old and 5 other kids without lifting anything? 

 

On the way home Lance said we should hire a nanny.  That may sound great, but to me that sounded horrible.  I wasn't confined to my bed, so it would just be weird.  I really only needed someone to lift Gabe or figure out how to not lift him.  Fortunately, I have some really great friends who were more than happy to take my other kids to school.  (At first I thought I could do it, but Gabe had to be put into his car seat or stroller and then taken out and that required lifting.)  Mia got Gabe out of his crib in the morning which she was more than happy to do.  Lance's mom came over at least twice a day to put Gabe down for a nap and get him up since he was still taking two naps a day. Usually in the afternoon, Brady was home to put him down.  I got out my booster high chair that we used when the girls were little and just left it on the floor for when I was home by myself.  Gabe could crawl in and out and really liked it.  Tyler helped me get laundry downstairs and Brady or Lance would take it back upstairs.  Grocery shopping was ok as long as I only lifted one bag at a time into my car and from the car to the house.  If I took Gabe, I had Mia or Brady come with me so they could lift him into the car seat and cart.  When someone else was home, I had them bring in the groceries.  It was a lot more difficult than I thought it be.  You don't realize how much lifting you do until you can't.  I only had bleeding for the first day, so it was hard to not want to just cheat since there was no more bleeding and it didn't hurt.  I was really good and only cheated a couple of times towards the end of the five weeks.

 

One day when we got home from picking up the kids from school, Isaac really had to go pee.  Apparently, he couldn't wait to get inside.  (Taking pictures probably just encouraged him, but it was so unexpected I couldn't resist.  He hasn't done it again so maybe I'm not such a bad mom.)

 

 

 

The school had their Red Ribbon week the week of Halloween.  They did a coloring contest, which all of my kids entered.  Mia was especially determined to win.  The theme was "I'd rather ______ than do drugs."  Tyler drew a black spider and didn't write anything.  He told us it was "I'd rather play with a black widow spider than do drugs."  I didn't really think too much about it.  A few days later we got a call that Tyler had been chosen as one of the 3 winners in Kindergarten!  I couldn't believe it.  (I'm still wondering if they just picked three out of a hat.)  Mia was very irritated.  Her exact quote was, "All of that work for nothing!"

 

 

The winners got their pictures put in a newspaper.  (I'm not sure which one.  They told us they'd let us know when it came out, but I never heard anything.)  They also got a donut, a Monster's University cup, some other gift certificates from a few local restaurants like a free ice cream cone from Arctic Circle.  They also got to climb around a fire truck, an ambulance and police car.  They all loved that.

 

 This little boy insisted he be in the picture with Isaac.  It was kind of funny.

 

I hope this is the only time I see these two in the back of a police car!

 

I had to get these pictures off of my cell phone, and look what other picture I found.  Brady is at least a year older in this picture than Tyler, but it's fun comparing them with the same shirt!

 

 

For Halloween Gabe dressed up as the cutest Optimus Prime ever!  I got this costume last year at Target for 90% off.  I think it was only $3.  Score!

 

 

We went to the costume parade at the school and watched 1,200 kids parade by in their costumes.  There's so many kids they practically have them sprinting through.  It gets quite dizzying.  Isaac wore a costume I got at Target last year as well.  It was only $1.  I'm not sure what it's supposed to be, but we just called it Green Lantern, not that he knows who that is.  He was happy with that.

 

 

Chloe wanted to be Merida.  I was planning to spray her hair red, but life got in the way and I didn't get any spray.  She's so mellow, she was fine with it.  I curled her hair and she was happy with that.



 

Mia wanted to be a vampire witch.  I made both Chloe and Mia's costumes.  I used the same pattern, just some different fabrics.  I did Mia's first and wasn't too happy with how the neckline turned out, so I did Chloe's my own way and liked it a lot better.

 

Tyler wanted to be Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I procrastinated getting his for a while because I considered trying to make it.  After I decided not to, I couldn't find one that was his size.  Instead I got Donatello and painted the purple part of the mask blue.  It didn't matter though since he couldn't wear the mask to school and the times he could wear it, he didn't want to.  It was a very popular choice in his class though.  There were three other ninja turtles.

 

 

Chloe took a few selfies of herself after school.

 

Isaac was excited to go trick-or-treating.  The weather was nice this year so it made it much more enjoyable.

 

 

First he wanted to do some wrestling with Tyler.  He loves to beat up on Tyler.  Usually Tyler just laughs and laughs until somebody gets hurt.

 

And here's some more pictures of Chloe.

Mia didn't want pictures taken, which is rare for her.

 

 

We went trick-or-treating with cousins in American Fork.  There was a hill we had to go up.  I was walking with Tyler and I told him I didn't know if I could make it up the big hill.  He held my hand and told me he'd help me with his boost.  When we came to a house, he started to run off to knock on the door.  I told him I didn't think I could make it without his boost.  He said, "That's ok.  I'll give you mine!" and slapped me on the bum!  He cracks me up.

 

Another day he was in the bathroom with me and he said, "I need to use some armpit cleaner," as he put on some of Lance's deodorant.  Immediately after that, he used an exceptionally large amount of some orange ginger lotion.  I'm sure his teacher was wondering what in the world he had bathed in before school! 

 

We managed to get pumpkins carved before Halloween.  I always plan to do it on a weekend, but it seems it always ends up being a weeknight of chaos.  Brady did the Minecraft one.  Mia chose the witch.  Tyler chose the dragon.  Chloe chose the cat and Isaac's is a grim reaper.

 

 I ended up only having four candles so we only had four lit up at one time.  They didn't even notice though.  Makes me wonder why we put so much time into carving them!

 

Isaac spilled some water one day.

 

 

 

This is how he tried to clean it up.  Do all boys do this?  So far I'm three for three with my boys doing this.

 

 

Isaac is still working on pooping in the toilet.  He doesn't usually poop in his underwear, but he holds it for days.  Then when we finally force him to sit on the toilet until he goes, it's a ton!  I think I'd rather spend a few minutes changing a diaper than a half an hour in the bathroom though.  Eventually he'll get it figured out, right?  Anyway, he's always very descriptive about the shape of his poop.  One day he said, "That one looks like a banana!"  After a few more minutes, "That one looks like it has two friends!"  A few days later, "That one looks like a strawberry.  There's a mommy and daddy." and one of my personal favorites, "That one looks like a brownie."  I considered taking pictures, but last month's poop pictures were probably enough for a while.  I apologize for all of the potty talk, but sometimes that's what consumes the life of a stay-at-home mom.  It's a glamorous life.

September- poop in the kitchen

We started off September with a new tent.  The kids were so excited, they had to spend a night in it right away.  Lance bravely offered to sleep in it with them.  Gabe and I slept in our nice comfy beds in the house.

 

They had a great time.  Lance was exhausted for some reason.  I thought Lance would be done with camping for the summer, but he took them the very next weekend up the canyon to an actual campground.  They really had a great time there.  All of those pictures were taken with his phone since Gabe and I once again stayed in our nice comfy beds.  You'll just have to imagine some pictures of cute kids climbing all over big rocks.  Maybe someday I'll go through and blog all of his pictures.



My sister called me and asked if I'd make her daughter a Cinderella dress.  At first I said no since it kind of overwhelmed me.  I was already planning on making Mia and Chloe's costumes so I wasn't sure I'd have time.  I did some searching on pinterest and found some good, easy tutorials and went for it.

 

A few hours later (spread over a couple of days) and I had a finished dress.  It's so rewarding when things actually turn out!

 

My niece is Tyler's age, but a lot smaller, so I was measuring Tyler and Isaac to get something that would fit her.  Tyler was not happy to model it for me, which is slightly ironic since I have a picture of him in a Cinderella dress when he was two and he was happy as could be.  My niece was thrilled with it.  I even made her some accessories to go with it. 

 

Isaac is totally obsessed with socks.  One day I found him smelling Brady's socks.  Another day he insisted on wearing the girls socks.  I got some wooden ornaments from Hobby Lobby to paint for Christmas.  He had to have the stocking, except he calls it a "socking".  We have a small silver case that Brady got at a garage sale a few years ago that has had many lives.  Isaac started carrying it around so I asked him what was in it.  He opened it up and he had a pair of Brady's socks in it!  He even had to take it to the store with him a few times. 

 

He's been very clingy.  He says things like, "Mommy, I neeeed you." Or he wants me to carry him everywhere.  He really misses the other kids when they're at school.  He asked me for weeks when he was going to go to his "orange school."  It took me a while to figure out what that was.  One day I was watching the video from Tyler's preschool graduation and realized that Tyler's preschool had a big wall of orange.  Tyler wanted to go back to preschool too.  He says it was more fun than kindergarten.

 

 Isaac still has some cute mispronunciations.  We heard one of the neighborhood chickens making noise and he asked me what it was.  I told him it was a rooster.  A few days later we heard it again on our walk to pick up the kids from school.  He said to me, "Is that the booster?"  Another day he asked if he could "go jump in the puzzle."  I was a little confused until I realized he was pointing at the puddle that had formed at the end of the driveway after some rain.  How could I deny such a cute request?  He's also very polite.  He says please and "pank you" most of the time.

As much as I tried to stop it from happening, Gabe turned 1.  He got some clothes and a bubble blower push toy.  His favorite thing was the angry bird fruit snacks and sucker he got from one of his grandma's.  The bubble blower toy was a complete fail.  It never worked right and leaked all over.  It found it's way into the trash within a few days.

 

 

He knew exactly what to do with his cake.

 

He ate it pretty quickly too!



 

I took 6 different pictures of him and he had his arms up in all of them.  I guess he wanted us to know how he's "so big!"

 

 

A few days later he had a nice surprise for us.  We were eating breakfast when I noticed something on the floor below his high chair.  At first I wondered how in the world he'd managed to get his oatmeal so far under his high chair.  When I looked closer I realized it was not oatmeal.  If you look closely, you can see that this took a route that came down his leg.  Not a good sign.  This was definitely a first at our house!   The kids all thought it was hillariously disgusting.  It started smelling pretty bad, pretty quick.  I put him in the tub and cleaned him up.  I cleaned up

the kitchen and managed to not throw up.  He had a few more nasty diapers the rest of the day (all of which stayed contained, thank goodness) and I prayed nobody else would get it.

 

Unfortunately, my prayers were not answered as I would have preferred.  A few days later, Isaac was having some tummy trouble.  He was standing in the kitchen, and he looked at me with that confused look on his face then he looked down and when I followed his gaze down, this is what greeted me.  

 

On the positive side, Isaac is potty-trained.  (I was regretting it after the poop incident.)  One day I just decided to do it.  I was having second thoughts after the second day though.  He had a much higher success rate when he wasn't wearing any underwear than he did when he wore underwear.  After we got through the first few days, he was fantastic.  It took about a week before it really clicked and I didn't have to take him all of the time.  He would tell me when he needed to go.  It took much longer to get the pooping in the toilet down.  He prefers to hold it in. We're still working on that.  I told a few people that he was working on potty-training when he was next to me.  One day Tyler brought home this train from school.  Isaac saw it and said, "I'm potty train.  That's my potty train!" 

Gabe has gotten very vocal lately.  He's always squawking about something he wants.  We've gotten pretty good at figuring out what it is though.  Usually it's food or drink that someone else has.  He also gives high fives.  He imitates a lot of the sounds of words.  For high five he'll make the vowel sounds.  It's pretty cute.  He's walked six steps on the 23rd of September so he's definitely making progress toward walking.

 

Brady's growing up and realizing he might be getting too old for some things.  One night before he went to bed, he said to me, "I'm just going to say this because it's bothering me.  Am I going to go trick or treating?  I could stay home and hand out the candy while you take the other kids.  It's just weird now.  Instead, will you buy me like two bags of Smarties?"  This from the boy who went trick or treating as Captain Underpants last year.  They grow up so fast.